RE: Public Hearing SDEIS UPC Phase I – January 19, 2007
No response was provided by the Cohocton Planning Board to the DEIS opposition documents for UPC Phase I. This project has been fundamentally changed from 82 MW and increased to 90 MW with the switch to 2.5 MW Clipper turbines from the 2.0 MW units. With different site locations from that in the DEIS it is evident that Phase I has become a different project. The data and studies in the SDEIS are incomplete and its conclusions are specious. Since the Clipper units are only in a testing stage, no reliable data regarding the noise, ice throw, shadow flicker are available. It would be malfeasance to approve a project the size of this UPC project using never before installed experimental industrial turbines.
The acknowledgement in the SDEIS Appendage G page i that a potential of 61 turbine sites and two substations locations were evaluated, proves that Phase I is a moving target and that it has become a totally different development. Manufacturers safety specifications for adequate protective setbacks from public roads are being disregarded. The liability insurance implication from willfully ignoring these setbacks will endanger the financial integrity of the Town of Cohocton.
The SDEIS does not address or mitigate these basic threats that come directly from an ill-conceived industrial project. UPC has a service contract with the manufacturer for servicing these units, so the promise of local employment is nothing but a hoax. UPC’s refusal to provide wind data that proves that Cohocton has sufficient wind to make their project economically sound is the most telling evidence that this development is a fraud.
The visual impact map in the SDEIS has been increased to 10 miles, but no mentioned that the 420’ towers will be seen from distances as far as forty miles away. Add the Dutch Hill Phase II along with the Prattsburgh UPC and Ecogen projects, and you will have as many as 229 turbines. Tug Hill has 160 1.5 MW units. So what you have in Cohocton/Prattsburgh regional development a single massive and coordinated project much larger than Tug Hill. Maple Ridge is rated for 240 MW, but the wind farm produced a paltry 0-30 MW, or 0-12.5% of capacity.
Since that development is already up for sale, only a fool would believe that UPC is here for the long haul. Without a cash escrow decommission fund, the leaseholders and the Town of Cohocton will bear the brunt of the costs when reality sinks in that the wind project is a failure.
The SDEIS is still relying on generic studies and seldom is site specific. How can conclusions of no harm be accepted when the turbines for this UPC project are untested and the results are unknown? Is this the kind of unstable future you want for this town? Reject the entire UPC industrialization of Cohocton.
Cordially,
James Hall
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